Heart Holes

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Last night, as we were driving home in the dim light after an electric sunset, my husband and I were talking about the events of the weekend, our hearts heavy over the news from Paris.  We were talking about how social media is being used to lure in young new terrorists all over Europe. In my tired state, I uttered, “I just don’t even get the draw that terrorists have for new recruits.”

When I woke up today, I read this from a writer I follow on Instagram:

“Re-read a book I read this summer about a young French journalists’s shocking undercover investigation into how today’s most ruthless terrorists use social media to reach and recruit increasing numbers of young Europeans and trick them into going to Raqqa, Syria, the most bloody city in the world, occupied by ISIS (and strict Sharia law), with the promise of love, spiritual purpose and a better life. The author chronicles her intense, month-long online relationship with a member of ISIS – who turns out to be non other than the right hand-man of Baghadi, the caliph of ISIS and the most dangerous man in the world. The book is called “In the Skin of a Jihadist”. Read it and protect our young!”

I thought of the really naive statement I said the night before. These terrorists are, after all, human. And at the core of every human is the need for love. If they can’t fill it with love, something else will enter. Nature abhors a vacuum. Some define evil as the absence of good, and though we can’t understand the terrorists totally, this helps explain their hatred to a degree.

This Monday morning, as we woke up and went about our day, most of us did not encounter the type of evil that is filling up these empty hearts across the ocean. Yet. The pundits say they are coming here, and though I refuse to let terrorism serve its purpose of making me feel terrified, it seems very likely to me that what happened in Paris will be duplicated. As the world starts to strike back against ISIS, they will retaliate. Soft targets. Big publicity. More recruits.

It is so easy to feel helpless in the face of all of it. We can’t do anything about it, except pray and lend our sovereign will to our leaders, and hope that they will respond effectively.

But it occurs to me that this dynamic of hatred entering in where there is want for love is something we do see closer to home, right where we are. The teens that feel unseen. Depression that is unchecked and turns into a rampage. Family members who are estranged. Hurt people who tend to shut off, shut out, or lash out. Relationships where people feel abused or abandoned. People in our lives who do the unforgivable, or are unable to forgive. We need to be brave right here, and reach out to them.

And we need to have fun. We need to show that despite heartbreak and terror, the fun in life, the joy in loving, is bigger. Yes, the world is hurting and there are so many problems to solve. But sometimes fear and grief can make us paralyzed. Fear can rob us of our humanity, of seeing the humanity in others. But love, laughter, joy – they can thaw that fear.

We can’t solve the problem of terrorism, but we can meet the need for love in our every day, in those around us and celebrate what’s good. We can see those that we tend to put off because they seem hungry or haughty, and offer a smile, a kind word, a moment where we see them. The light in them. And replace the vacuum – before it turns to hate – with love.